The New Roomate
by croeuf
Summary: Au One-Shot. "You're awfully quiet." His voice is brittle as he wheezes the words, one of his hands moving from her hair to her back, tracing invisible patterns. His other hand taps her temple lightly, "What's going on in there?" "My husband returned from the dead." In which Finnick returns to Annie - completely alive - and she has a something to tell him.


Her fingers are clammy with sweat as she tugs on the skirt of her dress. Finnick's breathing is low and even and he smiles at her and it tugs at her heart because he was dead.

_He was dead._

Now he's not and it feels like someone inflated her with warm air.

He sits up in the cot assigned to him in the hospital wing of District 13. One his hands find her own and he doesn't react to how sweaty it is, just holds it tighter and her throat constricts. He pulls her down to him, and she worms her way atop of him, trying to take as little of the already small bed space as possible. He may be alive, but he's still injured, and needs as much rest as possible.

She's jittery and alive because he's here, not dead, and she has something to tell him but the words wont come yet because he's running his hands through her hair and she's hugging his chest.

She's exhausted because the last few days have been sobbing and crying and darkness that goes beyond her closed eyelids.

"You're awfully quiet." His voice is brittle as he wheezes the words, one of his hands moving from her hair to her back, tracing invisible patterns. His other hand taps her temple lightly, "What's going on in there?"

Her heart flutters and her cheeks grow warm as she considers telling him.

She stares at him, biting her bottom lip. His heart monitor beeps. Distant footsteps shuffle. People murmur. Noise everywhere.

Here isn't the right place, it's not private enough.

She wants this moment for herself and Finnick.

"My husband returned from the dead."

* * *

They move him a week later, when he's able to walk on his own again. She helps him to their old room.

She adds it to the growing list of things she never thought she'd be able to do again.

His face is pale and he looks worn as she helps him sit on the bed. He smiles weakly, grasping her wrists to pull her into a kiss. They fall back on the bed, and the world is quiet.

She curls against his chest, her skin warm against his. He holds her against him, his long fingers pushing her hair back from her sweaty face in a steady rhythm, humming quietly as he does.

The world is in perfect balance.

It's quiet and his heart beats against the underside of her palm and she thinks it's the most beautiful thing about him – it tells her he's alive.

She bites her lip, because it's the perfect moment to tell him, but she's scared to break it, scared to tip this scale of serenity that they've built.

It's silly to be afraid.

But that's never stopped her before.

"What's going on in there?" His finger taps the tip of her nose and she scrunches her face as he pulls her from thought.

She lets go a deep breath, squirming closer to him, "A lot."

"A lot?" He whistles, his arm wrapping around her shoulders, "Sounds busy. Should I wait a while and come back?"

She giggles and rolls over him, her hands on either side of his head as she heaves herself up to hover over his face. Her hair falls down her shoulders and brushes his cheeks. He cranes his neck to kiss her, but she pushes her fingers against his lips, and his eyes pop open in curiosity.

"I've actually been putting off telling you something…for a while now." She smiles shyly, sitting back on his legs to allow him to sit up.

He pulls a sheet out from under him and wraps it around her bare shoulders, "Really? And what might that something be?"

She tugs the sheet closer around her, tilting her head to the side as she smiles at him mischievously. If there's one thing Finnick hates, is when she knows something he doesn't know. She's not going to let him off _that_ easy; not without toying with him first.

"How would you feel about having a…roommate?" She smiles at him and he cocks an eyebrow.

"A roommate?" He repeats slowly and she nods, "Well…I wouldn't be able to kiss you as privately."

She laughs as his hands brush her collar bones and she tilts her head back, "Hmm, I don't think he…or she…will mind if we have sex in front of them for the first year or so. They probably won't even know what's going on."

"They sound pretty oblivious to me…"

She nods, "Of course they will be. We're going to need to teach them everything someday."

His eyebrows almost blast off his forehead and she bites her tongue to stifle her laughter.

"Annie…I'm not sure I like where this is going…"

Something flutters inside her, and for a second she's nervous, but then she's sure she has no idea what she's talking about.

"Well, like it or not Finnick, they're coming."

"I'm sure we can talk to them, get them to not move in."

"Oh, Finnick, it doesn't really work like that…"

"But –"

"Because…"

"I'm sure we could –"

"I'm…"

"Come to _some_ kind of agreement –"

"Pregnant."

"I mean it doesn't…wait…"

"I'm pregnant."

"What?"

"Pregnant."

He blinks, his face stuck in a surprised expression and she watches him, her eyes cautious as she waits for the gears to turn and him to process what just happened.

"Come again?"

She sighs, "Now I _know_ you heard me the first time."

He shakes his head, suddenly beaming, "I did. But _how_?"

She gives him a look, "Well…we, err, had sex?"

He blinks, shakes his head again, and laughs, his hands finding her waist, his skin warm against the fabric of the sheet wrapped around her.

"Wow!"

She allows herself to smile now, relaxing as the weight of what she had been harboring inside of her leaves, "I know!"

"How long have you known?"

"I was told a few days after you left."

"Wow." He repeats, and this time it's a whisper; a tone that insinuates wonder and it digs under her skin and warms her heart.

"Yeah."

"We're going to be parents!"

"We are."


End file.
